Thursday, April 12, 2012

Finns are really not as inconsiderate as Helena Eronen. Shame on you!

There has been a very distrubing blogpost written by Helena Eronen yesterday. She is an aid to a member of parlaiment James Hirvesaari. You can google translate the Helsingin Sanomat reference to the original post, now removed, why?. In it she suggested that minorities and ethnic people living in Finland should wear armbands, like jews wore in the Nazi Germany. This is such an absurd idea, that I urge Helena to resign or to James Hirvessaari to fire her.

I really do not think Finns are this stupid.

There are so many distrubing elements to this blogpost. First, if you blog, you blog. That means you put something out forever and you should be able to stand by it. The web does not forget. The whole point with blogging is you are your own editor and the rest of the web is your judge. If you write clever things you will be praised if you write stupid things you will be disliked. Once you press publish it is there forever. Every idea that one gets into ones head, might not be worth publishing. You are what you blog. Google, Facebook and Twitter makes it discoverable.

My second point about this blogpost is a total disqust. As a Swedish speaking Finnish Dane working globally, who trives from cultural diversity, who is liberal regarding sexual minorities, who is passionate about the good things in the Nordics and paranoid about the future (no natural resources, people getting lazier, I know Norway has oil, does not solve much.), this kind of writing makes me puke.

I sincerely appologize as a Finn to all my foreign friends living in Finland. Helena Eronen is an exception and should pay the price with her reputation.

Having these kind of workers in our government is a disgrace. What makes the world so interesting is that we have different cultures and rituals that we do not understand, that gives anyone interested an opportunity to learn. Learning is one essence of life.

Looking a very narrow example; Starbuck's, British Airways and English language. If these things would be everywhere the world would be a dull place. For reference, I am huge fan and regular of both Starbuck's and British Airways and English is how I communicate on-line. I just do not want the things I like to be omnipresent. Diversity Rules!

Comments

I think the post was not meant to be taken too seriously. It's a humorous writing what we Finns call "pakina". Mayby "causerie" is the right English translation.

You can of course have an opinion was it a good joke or not, but taking it as a serious proposal for action is little bit over the top.

I defend people's right to joke about everything they like. That is basic freedom we are used to. In this era of hightened "political correctness" this post was of course a bit foolish considering the backround of the writer.

DISCLAIMER: It REALLY pains me to explain the actions of a member of the party in question. I dislike what they represent and I don't share their political agenda.

Posted by: Henrikki at Apr 12, 2012 11:37:51 AM

As a foreigner who has visited Finland on a few occasions, likes the country and people and tries to keep up with events there my sadness is what such stupidity does to Finland's reputation in the world.

Be it a joke, or not, some things - and there are obvious parallels to Nazi Germany which the writer surely must have realised - just are not funny, especially coming from a party that has a history of controversy/faux pas in this regard.

Also, doesn't it seem that every time they make such a gaffe (if that is what they are), they always say they were meant to be humorous and have been misunderstood?

Posted by: Chris at Apr 12, 2012 3:36:49 PM

They have not offered any explanations for the post, so there is no public record which card they play in that regard.

Humour is a difficult art. I believe it was meant as such. Was it a good one, everybody can decide themselves.

I agree, that it shouldn't have been published by them. Somebody else mayby could have pulled it out.

It was only last week when world renowned director Aki Kaurismäki told in an interview, that only way the society will survive is if we kill the richest 1 %.

I didn't find any public outburst with that one. We all have right to bad jokes. They just should be ignored.

Posted by: Henrikki at Apr 12, 2012 4:50:33 PM

"They have not offered any explanations for the post, so there is no public record which card they play in that regard."

Totally incorrect.

See http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2012/04/finns_party_mps_seek_firing_of_hirvisaari_aide_3401807.html

Some quotes:

'She said she did not accept Hirvisaari's rationale that the posting was meant as humour.

"It's bad humour. It does not suit our parliamentary delegation or our party," she added. '

'"I absolutely did not mean it seriously; it was intended as satire," Eronen told Yle's Swedish-language news. She said it was intended as a humorous response to a news story about police stopping foreigners to check their identity papers. '

'In a blog posting of his own on Wednesday, Hirvisaari defended his assistant's comments, calling them "well-intentioned and funny". He lashed out at Uusi Suomi for its "pathetic lack of a sense of humour"'

Although I agree with the rest of your post, save for the comment about Kaurismäki, which I didn't see.

Posted by: Chris at Apr 12, 2012 7:34:05 PM

This is not a joke! She shares the same passion as Hitler! "If you visit Eronen’s Facebook page and go to photos, you’ll find one where she is wearing an army-looking cap with a flower emblem. The edelweiss flower was used by a mountain commando division in Hitler’s army."

Posted by: Playdown_what? at Apr 12, 2012 10:52:01 PM

This was on the front page of pravda.ru . At first I thought it was a joke or hugely exaggerated as is sometimes the case in various media outlets... I'm sad to see it is not. It's absolutely a disgrace to have such a person as a part of the government and I don't think the fins in general really want her either. Sadly she's not the only european politician with such ambitions (France has LePen, even if she's a bit more eloquent).

http://www.pravda.ru/video/society/1459.html

Posted by: E at Apr 13, 2012 12:03:02 AM

In the light of her backround it comes more apparent, that publishing the post was really bad judgement.

Still, in the original text (how many of you have actually read it?) one of the suggestions was that for the people of the USA the sign should be a picture of "a hamburger".

It is really hard to take that kind of writing too seriously.

Posted by: Henrikki at Apr 13, 2012 7:38:59 AM

This is Kuvalehti*s reaction to Kaurinmäki interview. Because he is an artist, he can say whatever he wants and even set an example for the rest of us by being drunk while doing the interview:

I am ok with what Kaurismäki said and how he behaved, but I think it's only fair to treat others with the same latitude.

Posted by: Henrikki at Apr 13, 2012 7:45:36 AM

Having read Helena a long time, trust me, it was a joke. Yup, turned out bad but a joke no matter what. Helena is NOT anywhere near like that she has been painted to be. The whole thing just proves the utter corrupt state of finnish media society. They are the brain dead imbeciles here, and sadly they think they are somewhat 'elite'. Oh gosh.

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